The precept charge for 2012/2013 will be £604.50 per house. The total charge is £28,000. This is a fall of 20% compared to the charge for the current year.
Uniquely in the borough of Westminster, our precept charge is added to the council tax demands sent to each house on the Square. (We are our own line-item in the annual accounts of the city council.) Westminster is thus responsible for collecting our annual maintenance fees. This may be very convenient but we pay a charge of 4% for this service because they assume a collection rate of 96%.
Most houses on the square are in Council Tax Band H (the highest) and these houses will pay £634.50 next year. Houses in lower bands or carrying partial or complete exemptions will pay correspondingly less. The consequence of these exemptions is that although there are 52 properties on the square (48 in Band H, 3 in band G and 1 in Band D) the effective costing approximates to 45 houses.